The warhead of a long-range missile test-fired by North Korea was found in the U.S. state of Alaska, a report to the National Assembly revealed yesterday.

``According to a U.S. document, the last piece of a missile warhead fired by North Korea was found in Alaska,’’ former Japanese foreign minister Taro Nakayama was quoted as saying in the report. ``Washington, as well as Tokyo, has so far underrated Pyongyang’s missile capabilities.’’

The report was the culmination of monthlong activities of the Assembly’s overseas delegation to five countries over the North Korean nuclear crisis. The Assembly dispatched groups of lawmakers to the United States, Japan, China, Russia and European Union last month to collect information and opinions on the international issue.

The team sent to Japan, headed by Rep. Kim Hak-won of the United Liberal Democrats, reported, ``Nakayama said Washington has come to put more emphasis on trilateral cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the United States since it recognized that the three countries are within the range of North Korean missiles.’’

According to the group dispatched to the U.S., American politicians had a wide range of opinions over the resolution of the nuclear issue, from ``a peaceful resolution’’ to ``military response.’’

Doves, such as Rep. Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and co-chairman of the Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation, called for a peaceful settlement of the current confrontation, by offering food, energy and other humanitarian aid to the poverty-stricken country, while urging the North to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Rep. Markey also said the North should return to the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the U.S. should make a nonaggression pact with the communist North.

Hardliners, however, warned that the North’s possession of nuclear weapons will instigate a nuclear race in the region, provoking Japan to also acquire nuclear weapons. Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, an Illinois Republican, said the U.S. might have to bomb the Yongbyon nuclear complex should the North try to export its nuclear material to other countries.

Over the controversy concerning the withdrawal of U.S. forces stationed here, most American legislators that the parliamentary delegation met said U.S. troops should stay on the peninsula as long as the Korean people want, the report said.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr

03-04-2003 17:27

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now the government would have us believe that this is the first time north korea has ever tried this.

The United States warned that a North Korean launch of a long-range missile would be a "provocative act" and began intensive diplomatic consultations on a response."There are reports they may be preparing for a long-range missile launch," said Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman.

"The United States government as a whole has been consulting with allies in the region and has made clear than a North Korean missile launch would be a provocative act," he said.Whitman noted that the United States has limited missile defenses but would not say whether it intends to use them against a North Korean missile launch.However, he pointedly used the term "launch" rather than "test" to describe the North Korean preparations and said Pyongyang's intentions were not clear.

"A test would imply that you would know the intentions," he said. "We don't know the intentions."Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said the United States was consulting with partners in the six-party nuclear talks with North Korea, as well as other nations.China, South Korea, Russia, Japan and the United States are participants in the long-stalled talks with North Korea.

At the United Nations, US Ambassador John Bolton said he was consulting members of the Security Council "on what steps might be taken because it would obviously be very serious.""Obviously the first preference is that the North Koreans not light the missile off. We've made that clear to them," he added.

In 1998, North Korea fired a two-stage Taepodong 1 missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean, causing an international furore.It declared a moratorium on flight tests of long range missiles in 1999 but said in 2005 that it would no longer keep to it.The North Koreans appear to have completed fueling a long-range ballistic missile, greatly increasing the probability it will go ahead with its first test in eight years, the New York Times reported.

According to a senior US official quoted by the Times, satellite images suggest that booster rockets have been loaded onto a launch pad and liquid fuel tanks fitted to a missile at a site on North Korea's east coast.As early as 2004, US intelligence reported that North Korea may be ready to flight test a Taepodong-2 missile capable of reaching the US mainland with a nuclear weapon-sized payload.

A two-stage Taepodong-2 missile could hit parts of the United States, while a three-stage Taepodong-2 could range all of North America, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency told the US Senate in February 2005.Previous unclassified Defense Department estimates date back to 1997, when a report put the Taepodong-2 missile's range at between 4,000 and 6,000 kilometers (2,500-3,750 miles) , and the Taepodong-1 at 1,500 km (940 miles).

The United States has been working feverishly, with mixed success, to field missile defenses capable of countering a limited missile attack by North Korea.

A North Korean launch would mark the first real test of the US system, which currently consists of an array of tracking and targeting radars and at least 11 interceptor missiles in silos in Alaska and California.US Aegis warships have been modified for missile defense missions. Several are stationed in the western Pacific.

Their Spy-1 radars are capable of tracking missile launches. The US Missile Defense Agency also has been testing capabilities of warships to shoot down short and medium range missiles with interceptor missiles.

Last November, a US Navy cruiser intercepted a mock warhead after it separated from a medium-range missile in a test pover the Pacific.